Zaragoza Miracle of the Eucharist

Background information for the Zaragoza Miracle of the Eucharist

When Our Lady and the Angels arrived at Zaragoza, St. James and his disciples were deep in prayer. 

They saw the bright light of the entourage, and heard the heavenly voices of the Angels, chanting hymns in honor of Our Lord Jesus and His Mother Mary. 

Our Lady gave the message of Jesus to St. James, and added that before he was to return to Jerusalem, a church was to be built on the site where the apparition took place. 

The pillar and the image were to be part of the main altar.  Special graces and protection would be granted the people of Zaragoza, in exchange for a pure devotion to the Lord, and Our Lady. 

After the little church was built, Our Lady left with the Angels. 

St. James, soon after, began his last journey into Jerusalem to be martyred in the name of Jesus.  The people of Zaragoza began immediately to celebrate Mass at the little church built by the Angels, and to venerate Our Lady through the image left there by her and the Angels. 

Possibly the greatest aspect of this miracle is that the people of Spain were venerating the Mother of God under the title of Our Lady of Pilar for at least 12 YEARS BEFORE SHE DIED. 

According to the Tradition of Sr. Mary Agreda, Our Lady was living in Ephesus when this happened.  She was 54 years old.  Also, according to the visions of Sr. Mary, Our Lady died at age 67. 

So her appearance in Zaragoza would have been 12 or 13 years prior to her Assumption into heaven. 

This is the only apparition that we’ve ever heard of that took place prior to her death.

The little church is still there in Zaragoza. 

It has been built over by a much larger church.  The miraculous image of Our Lady is there for the faithful to venerate.  The Pillar is still there.  They are almost 2,000 years old.

We give you this background, because we feel it important for you to know the full importance of this place in God’s plan. 

When we wrote of the Eucharistic Miracle of Santarem in Portugal, we talked about clusters of places on earth where the Lord gave us certain special gifts over the years. 

We mentioned that time doesn’t play a role in God’s plan, because He is not limited by time and space. 

The fact that the miracle of Pilar took place in 40 or 41 A.D., and the Eucharistic Miracle we will discuss took place in 1427, further  confirms the importance of the place in the eyes of God. 

In addition, there were TWO OTHER EUCHARISTIC MIRACLES near Zaragoza, in Aninon in 1300, and Daroca in 1239, which we will tell about later on.

What other place in proximity with Zaragoza is important in that the Lord gave us a special miracle there?  Well, Zaragoza is at one end of the Pyrenees Mountains. 

At the other end of the same cluster of mountains is a little town in France, called LOURDES.

We think we know the significance of Lourdes.  But in the context of EUCHARISTIC MIRACLES, how important is the Shrine to Our Lady at Lourdes?

A great deal of the cures, physical healings that are credited to Lourdes happen during the PROCESSION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT, (or the Blessing of the Sick).  This takes place every afternoon at 3:30 at the shrine of Lourdes.

For these reasons, and many that the Lord has not revealed, we can say that Zaragoza, and this area of the world, is highly favored by the Lord and His dear Mother Mary. 

Because of the importance of this place, it has been a target for enemies of Christ over the centuries. 

Zaragoza has been under attack by Romans, Arians, and the savage fury of the Arab Moslems,  which brings us to the time of the miracle. 

The Moors, or Arab Moslems as we know them today, have been invaders of Europe from the days when the Romans fell. 

The Arabs had ruled this section of the world for 700 years, and so there was, and is, a strong Arab influence in Spain. 

At the time of the Eucharistic Miracle in 1427, they were no longer in power in Spain, but they were still living there, barely tolerated by their Christian leaders.  There was an extreme hatred by the Arab Moslems living in Zaragoza towards the Christians, because they had unseated them from power. 

The Zaragoza MIracle details

Against this background, we begin the narrative of one of the most unusual Eucharistic Miracles we have researched. 

There was a married couple living in the city, whose marriage was very stormy.

They argued about most everything. 

They could find nothing good to say of each other.  It was almost as if they lived to torture each other.  The wife complained bitterly to her friends about her treatment at the hands of her husband.  The friends consoled her, but could offer nothing very constructive in the way of advice.

On one occasion when she was bewailing her outcast state, one of her friends suggested she go to a Moslem sorcerer in the town, who could make a love potion which would make her husband return to the amorous way he treated her when they first married. 

She hesitated, because of her Catholic upbringing, but not for very long.  She was willing to investigate; she was not making any committments.

When she explained her plight to the Moslem sorcerer, he saw a great opportunity for himself, in being able to desecrate and blaspheme the very heart of Christianity, the Eucharist. 

He was very cunning, however, and the woman very gullible. 

So he led her along, saying he was not able to give her what he needed, because he didn’t have the proper ingredients to make the potion, but....

She fell each time for his bait, becoming more and more frenzied, until she reached such a high pitch, she was ready to kill for the potion. 

 It was then that he told her if she were to bring him a Consecrated Host from the church, he could make her potion. 

 Fear struck her heart.  In her instinctive Christian background, she knew that this was not only wrong, but Sacrilege. 

Whether the sorcerer had gotten her so worked up, or her family situation was that hopeless is not known. 

We do know, however, that the next day, she went to the Church of St. Michael in a deceptive attitude of piety. 

She could have been compared to a cloistered nun in her behavior. 

She went up to the altar to receive Our Dear Lord, then withdrew to a dark corner of the church, as if in prayer, to remove the Host from her mouth.  She placed It in a sack, and  left for the sorcerer’s house.

When she arrived, she opened the bag to find, not the Host, but a PERFECTLY FORMED, BEAUTIFUL LITTLE LIVE BABY. 

A bright Aura surrounded His Body.  She was in a state of shock. 

This was more than she had bargained for.  She showed the product of her treachery to the Moslem, who was bewildered.  But his hate for Christ was stronger than his fear or confusion. 

He was still ready to go forward with his plan.  He convinced her to take the Baby home, and burn It in a fire. 

She was then to carry the ashes back to the Moslem, who would make a potion which the wife would mix into her husbands food or wine.

Were  these two so obsessed with their plot, or so caught up in their individual desires, that they were not aware of what they were willing to do? 

How bad could the wife’s situation have been, that now she was willing to sacrifice and burn a Miraculous Child? 

Whatever the reasons, they continued with their conspiracy. 

The wife, now obviously devoid of all reason, brought the Baby home. She put It on a fire, tying It to a metal rod, and turning It, as you would barbecue a pig on a spit. 

The results were not at all what the lady expected.  Instead of burning up, the Child became brighter and brighter as It was turned in the fire.  When the fire went out, the Baby was not only not dead, but was brilliant in light.

The Lord finally had His way.  As she ran through the streets, holding the baby in her arms, great tears streamed down her face, tears of fear and repentance. 

She begged Our Dear Lord for forgiveness.  When she arrived at the sorcerer’s house, he was completely overcome by the events. 

He fell to his knees in fear, and begged forgiveness from the God he had so hated, was so willing to blaspheme. 

He called to Allah, whom he now believed to be also the God of the Christians.  

The wife and the sorcerer, their attitudes now completely  different than when they plotted the Sacrilege, went to the Cathedral in Zaragoza; the wife to confess her sins to a priest;  the sorcerer in search of the Vicar General of the Diocese, to ask how he could receive pardon for his terrible sin.

The account of the Miraculous Transformation of the Host to a Baby circulated the town like wildfire. 

The Archbishop, Don Alonso Arbuello, was made aware of the incident.  He was very wary.  It sounded incredible. 

He  became involved immediately, and formed a committee to investigate this mystery. 

The fact that a Moslem was involved made him very suspicious.  The baby could have been obtained by many means. It could have been kidnapped from a mother after she had given birth.

With all his doubts, two things stood out as irrefutable proof that this was Supernatural intervention. 

The Baby had been put into a fire, and was not burned.  This in itself was miraculous.  But another, and possibly more important proof was that the Baby was so illuminated. 

The Archbishop and the committee could actually see the Zaragoza Miracle! 

They knew that the Lord had been working in their midst.  They didn’t know exactly what was going on, but they knew that they had to determine that this was truly a Divine Act.

The Baby was taken from the home of the unhappy husband and wife, as much because It was considered a miraculous being from Heaven, as it was that the people and the Church were not comfortable leaving the Precious Baby in such an unhappy circumstance. 

That Saturday, in solemn procession, the Baby was transferred to the Cathedral.  There were, in the procession, all of the dignitaries of the city.  There was the head of the Cathedral, the head of the Church of Our Lady of Pilar, the clergy of ALL the Religious Orders in and around Zaragoza, as well as all the secular priests of the area. 

The heads of the city marched in the procession, IN ADDITION to all the Nobility, and most of the commoners of the town. 

In short, just about everybody in town was there.  At the very back of the procession, the Archbishop, under a canopy, processed with the Child on a Golden Plate.

The Child was placed on the altar of San Valero, under heavy guard, but where the entire assemblage of Zaragoza could witness and venerate the Miracle from heaven. 

The Baby was kept there all day Saturday, and on Sunday Morning, the Archbishop celebrated the Votive Mass of the Blessed Sacrament, in honor of the Eucharistic Miracle in their midst. 

During the Offertory, as the Archbishop offered the gifts of bread and wine to the Lord, the Child, gleaming more brightly than ever before, disappeared, and in Its place, the Consecrated Host reappeared.

The Archbishop knew that there was no need to consecrate this Host. 

It had been consecrated by a Power far greater than himself.  He consecrated the rest of the hosts, and at Communion, he consumed the Miraculous Host.

The results of the Miracle were overwhelming. 

Needless to say the woman was repentant, and went on to live an exemplary life.  She and her husband were reconciled, not through witchcraft or black magic, but through Divine Intervention.

The Moslem was converted.  He changed from a vicious enemy of Christ and all things Christian, to a firm worshipper of Our Lord Jesus, and a staunch defender of all things Christian, in particular things concerning the Presence of Our Lord Jesus in the Eucharist.

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